


Sweaters

by Exdraghunt



Series: Wings and Tails [2]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: M/M, Mistletoe shenanigans, christmas cute ness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 00:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9046844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exdraghunt/pseuds/Exdraghunt
Summary: The kids find out the Sportacus is an elf. This isn't a problem until Christmas rolls around. - Sequel-ish to "Mittens"





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a random idea I had. What if the kids found out Sportacus was an elf, and assumed that means he's one of Santa's elves? Plus, bonus SportaRobbie kisses.

In the end, when the kids discovered that Sportacus was an elf it was all rather anti-climatic. They’d been playing a game, which somehow had devolved into some kind of 5 on 1 wrestling match with all of the kids trying to take down the blue-clad hero. Sportacus laughed when Ziggy let out a battle cry and took a flying leap onto his back, but his laughter stopped when a small hand grabbed onto his hat and pulled it off. Ziggy gave a surprised ‘oof’ when his purchase suddenly gave way, falling to the ground with the blue knit cap clenched in his small fist. 

Sportacus gasped, hands flying up to cover his ears, but he wasn’t fast enough. 

“Oh wow!” “Sportacus, your ears!” “Cool!” “Are you an elf?”

All the little hands tugging at his arms finally forced Sportacus to uncover his ears and sit down on the ground with a thump. He winced as curious fingers felt and touched his sensitive ears, exploring the way they tapered out into a long, clearly inhuman, point, but forced himself not to yell at them or flinch away. They were just kids, and he had been hiding this from them. 

“Yes, I am an elf.” Sportacus admitted, waiting for the rejection. For the kids to tell him to get out, to go away, because he was not like them. Because he was supposed to be an example, but he wasn’t even human. 

It never came. The kids continued to talk over one-another, asking eager questions about whether he could do magic, if he could hear really well, if the island he came from was full of other elves. Sportacus answered their questions, shakily at first but slowly calming down. Yes, he could do magic. Yes, he could hear better than the average human. Yes, his home was a place called Álfheim, which was populated by other elves. 

Soon enough, the kids got bored with asking questions and decided they’d rather play football. There was a brief fight over which team got Sportacus, though he played so half-heartedly that the game was rather even. When the game was done, he excused himself back up to his airship to calm down. He needed to think about things for a little while. 

 

It turned out that there wasn’t much to worry about. Things continued mostly as normal, except that Sportacus didn’t have to worry if the kids saw him perform small feats of magic, or check multiple times a day to make sure his hat was covering his ears properly. Other than that, the kids didn’t treat him any differently than before. 

A few of the adults were a bit more suspicious than their offspring. The stories of elves dancing humans to death, seducing women and men, stealing children, were centuries old but some of them still lingered. Sportacus had become such a fixture in town, though, always cheerful and happy to help, that their suspicions quickly faded. 

 

The subject of Sportacus not being human wasn’t even brought up most of the time, unless saving the day involved a clearly inhuman show of strength or magic. That is, until it was Christmas season again in Lazy Town. 

Sportacus wasn’t entirely well acquainted with human culture, having grown up relatively sheltered in an elf village, though he had studied as well as he could before leaving home on his journey. Admittedly, most of his research had been into the kinds of sports humans played, and less into their holiday traditions. 

As such, he hadn’t really realized just how important “Christmas Elves” were to the winter holiday in the west. He knew about Santa Claus, of course, but now the kids were completely convinced that Sportacus must have a direct line to the man. The hero tried to explain that he wasn’t –that kind- of elf, but the kids were far too excited about the idea that their friend personally knew Santa Claus to listen. 

Instead, Sportacus just had to smile indulgently when the kids came to him to share what they wanted for Christmas and remind him that he’d better tell Santa that they’d been good that year. The hero sincerely hoped that the kids weren’t expecting –everything- on their lists, though he did make a reminder to get one thing for each of them. Something that wasn’t twenty pounds of taffy or a solid gold hood ornament. 

It did get a little tiring, though, when the kids kept asking him if he’d ever been in Santa’s workshop, or if he –really- knew how to make toys. Sportacus was actually relieved when he saw Robbie Rotten slink into the party, sidling over to the snacks table to try and nab some cookies before anyone noticed. 

“Robbie!” Sportacus excused himself from the kids and went over to the other adult. “You’re here!”

The town “villain” startled at the sight of the over-eager elf, unsure as to why his presence required such excited acknowledgement. Surely Sportacus wasn’t –that- happy to see him, nobody ever was. “Well, couldn’t let these cookies go to waste. Brats giving you trouble?”

“The –kids- aren’t any trouble. They’re just young.” At least, that’s what Sportacus had been telling himself these last few weeks. “But. They do seem to think that I’m a Christmas Elf from the North Pole.”

Robbie roared with laughter at that, bending double and having to set his plate aside as he wheezed. Sportacus didn’t see quite what was so funny, but had to admit it was nice to see the other man laughing because of genuine amusement, as opposed to malicious intent. 

“I don’t know why you think that’s so funny.” Sportacus said, attempting to look disapproving despite the smile on his face. 

“Of course. Of course they think you’re a Christmas Elf.” Robbie managed, wiping his eyes weakly. Just the idea of Sportacus in a little green outfit, making toy horses and carving wooden whistles for all the good little children, was hilarious to him. “We’ll have to get you a pointy hat.”

Sportacus grabbed his hat in reflex, as though afraid Robbie would snatch it from his head. The elf probably was, come to think of it. Though the town had known what he really was for several months now, he still kept his hat pulled over his ears and tried his best to seem human around the kids. 

“Why do you still wear that thing all the time anyway?” Robbie reached up and batted aside Sportacus’ hands, pulling up the elf’s hat to tuck the fabric behind the point of his ears. 

Sportacus blushed brightly, unable to prevent twitching his ears away from the touch. They were very sensitive, another reason he kept them covered. Plus, now Robbie’s hands were on him, fingers touching the blonde curls that had slipped from his hat. Their faces were quite close now, and Robbie was turning almost as red. 

Unfortunately for the two men, their sudden closeness hadn’t gone unnoticed by the kids in the room. Trixie had earlier rigged up a fishing pole with a sprig of mistletoe dangling from the end, unable to resist the temptation for a little mischief making during the party, and now her and Ziggy were sneaking up behind the duo with pole in hand. 

Movement, and Robbie’s natural ability to sense when someone was up to no good, made the man glance up and catch sight of the bobbing greenery on the end of the near-invisible fishing line. Sportacus followed his gaze, and immediately traced the mistletoe to a giggling Trixie and Ziggy. 

“You two!” Sportacus admonished gently, too amused to be really angry. 

The two kids only laughed harder. “You know the rules, now you have to kiss!” Trixie yelled, waving the mistletoe over their heads. 

Sportacus rolled his eyes. He didn’t know much about human holiday traditions, but this one he was well aware of. He turned back to Robbie and raised an eyebrow suggestively, only to see that Robbie wasn’t quite as amused as he was. Instead, the man was bright red and looking rather angry. Without saying anything, he turned on his heel and stomped out of the town hall. 

“Wha-,” It took Sportacus a moment to get over his surprise. He quickly dashed after Robbie, but outside there was only swirling snow. The other man was gone. 

Sadly, Sportacus turned and headed back inside. It was probably best to leave Robbie be for a little while. Trixie watched him return, alone, with an expression of intense guilt. 

“I’m sorry, Sportacus!” The girl cried as she dropped her fishing pole and wrapped around his leg. “I didn’t mean to make him leave. I thought it would be funny.”

“Yeah,” Ziggy agreed, looking as though someone had stolen his favorite lollipop. “We’re real sorry.”

Expression softening, Sportacus knelt down and gave them both an affectionate rub on the head. “It’s okay. I know you weren’t trying to be mean. But not everyone appreciates having a prank played on them.”

The two still looked rather heartbroken, so Sportacus stood and took their hands. “Come on, I think it’s almost time to open presents.”

 

Lazy Town was always quiet and still on Christmas morning, families warm and happy around their trees as they opened their presents and enjoyed being together. Sportacus watched from his airship with a heavy heart. Back home, though they celebrated Yule as opposed to Christmas, he had always had his family and the rest of the village with him for the winter holiday season. It was the nature of a hero, though, to stand alone. 

It was the nature of another person to be alone during the holidays as well. Sportacus held out hope that Robbie would contact him, as the man had the year before, but as the day wore on the elf began to lose that hope. Finally, Sportacus realized that if he wanted to have company he would have to seek it out himself. 

Steering his airship over to the billboard on the edge of town, Sportacus made certain to pull on the winter coat that Robbie had made for him the year previous before calling for the ladder and hopping down to the ground below. 

There wasn’t exactly a door to knock on, so Sportacus rapped on the large pipe that led down to the villain’s lair. The sound was hollow and echoing in the cold air. Rocking on his heels, Sportacus knocked again, until an irritated “What?!” was heard from the other side and the top of the pipe swung open. 

“Oh, it’s you.” Robbie frowned when he saw Sportacus standing outside his house, though he was a little surprised to see that the elf was wearing his hand-made winter coat. “Come to have another laugh at me?”

“What-? Robbie, no. I’m sorry about yesterday, Trixie just likes to play pranks on people.” Sportacus knew that the girl hadn’t meant any harm, but Robbie wasn’t used to her sense of humor. “She didn’t mean to upset you.”

With a loud ‘hmph,’ Robbie climbed out of the pipe just so he could cross his arms. “She didn’t ‘upset’ me. But I don’t appreciate being made fun of.”

“I’m sorry.” Sportacus said sincerely. “Trixie promised she would apologize as well when she saw you. But I thought you might like company on Christmas. I brought you something.” He looked up to his airship hovering overhead and loudly commanded “gift!”. Obediently, a gift-wrapped package dropped from the sky and into his arms. 

Robbie almost felt bad for his behavior the day previous as he accepted the gift and tore away the wrapping paper. Inside he found a knit sweater and scarf, both in shades of purple, with a silver “RR” emblem on the ends of the scarf. “So first you learn to sew. Then, to knit?”

“I asked Miss Busybody, and she had a friend who taught me.” Sportacus had actually found himself enjoying knitting. It allowed himself to keep part of his body moving while his mind focused on other things, and the elf had actually managed to finish an entire movie while knitting the sweater. Normally, he wasn’t capable of keeping himself still for the length of time a movie required, but the motion of the knitting needles satisfied his body’s need for movement. 

Robbie looked at the gift for a moment longer, before pulling the sweater over his head and wrapping the scarf around his neck. It was lumpy, but it fit. There was a clatter, and he looked down to see a package of candy canes fall from the folds of the sweater and hit the ground. Sportacus helpfully stooped down and grabbed it, holding it out with an earnest smile on his face. 

That broke Robbie’s resolve, and he found he could no longer stay angry in the face of the elf’s happy grin. He cleared his throat and gestured towards the pipe. “I have a present for you, too. Uh, it’s not much warmer inside but if you want-“

“I’d love too.” Sportacus followed him into the pipe, landing down in the other man’s underground lair with a thump. 

Any present from Robbie would be treasured by Sportacus, but the elf was greatly amused to find that the other man had knitted him a sweater as well. Apparently, great minds think alike. The one Robbie had made was much better put together, of course, and Sportacus couldn’t hold in a laugh when he saw that across the chest were the words ‘I’m not short, I’m just a tall elf.’ “I’m not that short, am I?” 

“I don’t know about that.” Robbie grinned and stood up straight, enjoying the fact that he stood head and shoulders above the elf. It was one of the few things he had over Sportacus. “There’s something else, too.”

The something else was a green, pointed hat with a bell sewn to the tip. Just the type that the elves wore in those funny Christmas story books the kids had shown him. With a roll of his eyes, Sportacus removed his blue cap and replaced it with the elf hat. His pointed ears, and new sweater, completed the picture. 

Graciously, Sportacus allowed Robbie to take a photograph for future amusement, before coming closer. “Thank you, Robbie. But, I think you owe me one more thing.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s-“ Robbie was suddenly cut off when Sportacus got up on his tip-toes to give the other man a quick kiss. 

“We did end up under mistletoe yesterday.” Sportacus reminded when he broke away, flushed bright red to the tips of his ears. He’d been thinking about collecting on that kiss all morning, and had finally found the courage to go for it. 

“S- so we did,” Robbie stuttered, raising a hand to his lips in disbelief. 

Reaching forward to take both of Robbie’s hands in his own, Sportacus went back in for another kiss. This time, Robbie reciprocated. Maybe, this hadn’t been such a bad Christmas after all, for either of them.


End file.
